


Heaven is a Place In Hell With You

by C_Inferno



Category: Love Live! School Idol Festival (Video Game), Love Live! School Idol Project, Love Live! Sunshine!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Angels & Demons, Angel/Demon AU, DW I PROMOSE IT’S SFW, F/F, I'm thirsty for Angel Riko and I won't apologize, It's a borderline Alice in Wonderland Au too lmao, another AU I'm obsessed with :/, except with angels and demons
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-12
Updated: 2018-06-03
Packaged: 2019-04-21 23:47:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 7,416
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14296092
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/C_Inferno/pseuds/C_Inferno
Summary: Riko Sakurauchi fell down a rabbit hole--except instead of finding Wonderland she finds herself in Hell, which means this figure greeting her in the dark is no white rabbit. She's a demon.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This fic was originally intended to be explicitly NSFW however I decided to clean it up and make it more approachable. While it will no longer be NSFW, there will be some residue of the original plot, just cleaned up and made more appropriate.

Her eyes were brilliantly fierce and seem to blaze a neon green even in the dim light of the cavern. They were sharp, predatory for sure, and while they should’ve filled Riko with fear, they did not. She leaned in, looming impressively over Riko with an imposing physique. Strong arms, exposed by a sleeveless shirt approached her as she placed a hand on Riko’s shoulder. The pain overtook all her other senses and Riko gasped loudly, screwing her eyes shut to try and steel through it. Her eyes watered. Then she felt the same invasive hand drag along her feathers and tug to expand her right wing. The pain made her cry out this time and tears fell shortly after. 

 

“You poor little bird,” the woman whispered. The softness of her voice made Riko jolt. “All alone with a broken wing. What are we going to do with you?”

 

Do with her? Oh...right. She fell down the preverbal rabbit hole into the worst possible place imaginable. It had to have been the shock of impact, but it hadn’t registered until now. This wasn’t a woman who was now glaring at her with eyes like smoldering gems. When everything finally set in, fear took over as it should have the moment Riko saw her. She threw herself back, turned over and unfurled her wings. It stung incredibly, but she had no choice. She had to get out of here—she’d just have to brave the pain for now. The circle of light above her was a clear destination. She flapped as hard as she could, forcing enough air to lift her up a few feet but her broken wing buckled under the pressure and she smashed into the ground. 

 

No.

 

Please, God.

 

Riko frantically flapped her wings, but she could do little more than kick up dirt now. She was grounded, left writhing on the hot cavern floor and trapped like a moth in a web. Footsteps approaching her set her panic mode into overdrive and she rolled over onto her back as the stranger drew nearer. She couldn’t get far enough away from the hand that seized a fist full of the hair on her scalp. Riko thrashed weakly, even beat her fists on her aggressor's arm, but it did nothing.

 

“Don’t struggle.” The words were quiet and gentle, almost tempting to heed, but Riko knew better. She knew that where she was now she would never be able to escape unless she fought with everything she had—which, admittedly, wasn’t much. 

 

This was hell, after all, which made the woman speaking to her a demon. 

 

She dug her nails into the demon’s arm, breaking the skin and drawing blood, but it did nothing to help her. 

 

“Settle down, this is your last warning.”

 

“P-put me down!” Riko tried her best to sound brave and fierce, but she was terrified. The demon didn’t reply this time, but she also didn’t heed Riko. “I said put me down! Th-the other angels will come looking for me! They’re looking for me now!”

 

“Nobody is coming for you.”

 

The words splintered in Riko’s ears, harsh and direct. Sure, it was a mainly a bluff, a desperate ploy for her life, but how could that demon be so certain? The angels would miss her, even Riko wasn’t  _ that  _ boring. They’d notice eventually—they’d come for her!

 

“You should know, little bird, once you fall down here you never get out. This is hell, and hell is absolute.”

 

Hearing it made her eyes widen in horror. She yelped as the woman hoisted her to her feet by her hair, but suitable for the words she spoke, her grip was absolute. They were spider fangs to her tiny moth body, digging into her, paralyzing her. Tears fell freely down her face. 

 

“I’m sorry.”

 

Those were not words Riko was expecting to hear. The demon spoke them almost tenderly—almost  _ believably _ . She didn’t seem keen on harming Riko, at least not immediately. Riko wasn’t strong enough to fight this person off, that much was certain, but if she could beg her way out of here she was prepared to do so. What was pride in place of eternal damnation?

 

“P-please let me go, I-I’ll do anything.”

 

“You’re quick to beg,” the demon replied. “I enjoy that.”

 

“Please…”

 

“What are you willing to do?”

 

“Anything you want! I-I don’t have much to give...but I don’t want to be trapped down here!”

 

The demon released her hair but grabbed ahold of her face, pinching her cheeks together in another impossible-to-escape grip. She leaned in close, so close that Riko could feel the demon’s breath on her neck and it made her shiver. 

 

“Would you give me your halo?”

 

Riko’s eyes went wide as plates. Her halo? That was a core part of her being angel, and honestly, she didn't think something like that could even be given freely. She'd certainly never thought of bargaining her birthright as an angel, but in place of eternal damnation? What would happen to her?

 

The demon let go of her face. “Just kidding.”

 

Riko blinked in surprise. “Eh?”

 

“I’m afraid I can’t let you go no matter what empty promises you might throw at me. Say your farewells to the light of day, little bird, because it’s the last you’ll ever see of it. You’re in your eternal cage now.”

 

“I won’t!”

 

“You’re in no position to argue. You can either come willingly or I can bring you in pieces one by one.” The tone of her voice had completely changed, but Riko didn’t doubt what she said by that predatory sheen in her eyes. But...she had to get out of here...even if it killed her! She had one last go at it as far as she knew. Riko turned on her heels and ran back towards the hole in the cavern ceiling and opened her wings as much as she could. It hurt so bad, but she had to bite through it. She didn’t need to soar, she just needed to struggle enough to break free of this place. As agonizing as it was, she forced her wings to carry her off the dirt. They threw her awkwardly into the air but that’s the only place she needed to be. She could do it. She had one good wing and maybe that was good enough. She’d have one hell of a story to tell—pun not intended. 

 

Her wing snapped. 

 

Just like that, her wing gave out and now she was falling again. Plummeting, more like. It seemed to happen in slow motion, but she hit the ground hard and the back of her head felt like it split against the floor. Her vision tunneled, her lungs emptied and then everything went dark. 

 

The last thing she heard—aside from the sick sound of her skull cracking on the hard soil—was the deceptively tender voice of the demon. 

 

“I’m sorry.”

 

There it was again...that empty apology. How sorry could she be, Riko thought in her last moments of consciousness. How sorry is a spider feasting on a trapped moth? 


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Riko wakes up in a bed, but none of this is a dream. It seems like a nightmare, but it's very real.

As far as Riko knew, death was painless. At least, it was painless the first time she died. She didn’t remember much of that moment. The headlights of the car burned in her memory, but nothing after that. It didn’t hurt as much as she thought it would. In fact, as far as she remembered, it didn’t hurt at all. What final moments she could recall were spent lying on her back staring at the sky as her body bled out. It had rained the entire week before she died, but on that day, at that moment, the sky was a clear blue. 

Riko’s eyes fluttered opened and she found herself in a dimly lit bedroom. Ah...her head hurt something awful and when she touched her hand to it she felt a coarse bandage wrapped around her forehead. Her wing had also been bandaged and bound to her body.

Well...she was alive and intact. God, her head felt like somebody had smashed it with a baseball bat. What had happened? The last thing she remembered...a demon had trapped her. She hadn’t expected anyone to save her, but praying must have done the trick. For once. God’s timing was impeccable. 

The room was empty apart from herself, but it was large and lavishly decorated. Portraits hung on each of the four walls and the floor was laid with bright white tile and covered with an opulent red rug with gold trimming. There was a large table opposite the bed with platters of pomegranates and...lemons? Odd for decor, but to each their own. 

She’d had enough of looking around and slumped back into the bed. It was unbelievably soft and the white silky sheets enveloped her. It smelled flowery, like roses almost, and she imagined the kind of person to have such a wonderful room. Her body begged for her to sleep more, but she had to figure out where she was. 

Reluctantly, she slipped out of the large queen sized bed and, between pauses from her splitting headache, headed for the door. It was locked. Ok…

Well, a locked door seemed to be the least of her problems. It was normal to lock guests in bedrooms, right? Even if Riko was a literal angel, she was still a stranger, she supposed. That only meant she had good reason to climb back in bed. 

She didn’t know how long she slept—immortality had a funny way of playing on your concept of time. It was the sound of the bedroom door opening that disrupted her and in walked a smiling blonde woman with bright gold eyes. 

“Oh good, you’re awake! I was wondering when you’d come to. Is my bed just that comfy?” 

So it was her bed Riko was in. OH. Riko shot up—painfully enough to wince. “I-I’m sorry!”

The woman giggled. “Don’t be, bella, I’m the one who put you in it after all. Your poor little wing was snapped like a twig so I tied it up. I think with a little TLC and some R&R you should be flapping comfortably in no time. Angels don’t usually break things, but you heal pretty quickly.”

“Thank you.”

“I wouldn’t thank me just yet,” she said with a playful chuckle. “I’m Mari.”

“I’m Riko, and really, thank you for saving me.”

“Saving you?”

“As clumsy as I am I should’ve known better than to go peeking around a huge hole in the ground. I didn’t think much of it because, you know, I have wings, but I guess I fell so hard I broke one. Then this awful demon showed up and I tried to get away and I knocked myself. S-sorry...I’m rambling. I’m just so happy that you got me away from her. She was—

Riko was interrupted by a knock at the door. “Mari-san, I finished cleaning. Is she awake yet?”

Mari sighed, looking annoyed. “Yes yes, now go away. I’ll call you back when I need you.”

“Do me a favor. Don’t need me.”

“Sorry about her, she can be a bitch. But you know how it goes, you feed a stray dog and they follow you home. What were you saying?”

“A-ah...just...about that person that tried to kidnap me. She was really scary and asked me some weird things.”

“Let me guess, she wanted your halo or something?”

“How’d you know…?”

“That’s about the only use a demon has for an angel. That and a tasty snack!” Riko squeaked.

Mari’s shoulders bounced as she laughed. “It’s joke!”

Riko wasn’t sure that she appreciated that kind of humor. “Oh…”

“How’s your head, by the way? Dia said you hit it pretty hard.”

“I feels better than when I woke up earlier, but it still hurts a lot. Wait...who’s Dia?”

“That was her at the door just now. She’s the one that brought you to me. She’s not as tough as she acts, don’t let her fool you. I can always put her in her place.”

Riko laughed weakly, not sure how to respond. “Well...I’d like to thank her too.”

“Are you sure?”

Confused at first, Riko replied honestly. “Of course. If she was the one that brought me down here I should thank her for her trouble.”

Mari giggled. “You angels are funny. Give me a second, I’ll tell her to come back.” She stood up from the bed and, before approaching the door she looped around to the table of lemons and picked one up. After biting into it—peel and all—she opened the door and stuck her head out. 

“Diaaaa!” Her voice was so singsongy and feminine. “She wants to see you!”

Riko could hear Dia sigh from down the hall. “I don’t enjoy your jokes, Mari-san. If you’re bored or want to play games, you’ve got new company to do it with.” Dia did not sound at all amused. 

“But I’m serious! She says she wants to thank you for bringing her down here!”

“Mari-san, I’m busy.”

“She’s going to get the wrong impression if you ignore her heartfelt thank you. What kind of message are you trying to send?”

“I don’t care what you have to say right now, Mari-san.”

Mari stuck her head back in. “She’s really not having it. Maybe you should call her in here.”

“R-really?”

“She isn’t going to believe anything I say, and honestly I wouldn’t believe me either.”

Mari opened the door wider, inviting Riko to call out to Dia. Riko didn’t understand their dynamic, but she liked the opportunity to get her feelings across. 

“Um...D-Dia-san…” Her cheeks were burning. “She’s right...I do want to...um...thank you for saving me…” Her voice tapered off shyly and Mari seemed the most amused at her expression. 

“I think you confused her out of words.”

“What do you mean?”

“First you tell me you’re terrified of her kidnapping you, but now that she’s here you want to thank her?”

A chill jolted down Riko’s spine. “Wh-what?”

“Ohhh...I get it, I get it. This makes more sense now. I was wondering why you kept thanking us—you think you got rescued! Silly goose,” Mari purred as she pinched Riko’s cheek. “You’re in the belly of the beast right now.”

The panic that she remembered when she first fell down the rabbit hole was nothing compared to what she was feeling now. The sweet, almost catlike grin on Mari’s face betrayed her. When she approached, Riko began to tremble and tried to crawl away but she trapped herself against the bedboard. 

“What’s this? Where’d all your civility and proper etiquette go? You were talking to me so easily before. Has it finally set in?”

Riko gripped the bedsheets so tightly her knuckles were turning white. “What...what do you want with me?”

“Absolutely nothing at all,” Mari replied, still grinning. 

“Then…” A glimmer of hope. “Then will you let me go?”

“Definitely not.”

“Why? Please...I just want to go home.”

“You cute little bird, you are home now. These are the rules. Dia and I can never leave so it’s only natural that anyone else that falls down here has to stay too.”

“I didn’t mean to trespass. I knew I shouldn’t have been so reckless and curious. Please don’t punish me for being stupid!”

“You agree you should be punished?”

“No! Please, please don’t hurt me!”

“It only hurts for a little while, but pretty soon you’ll come to love it down here. The quicker you submit, the more fun it will be.”

Riko shoved her away, but surprisingly, Mari respected the distance she had put between them. She had expected the demoness to be angry with her or to retaliate, but she only kept wearing that smile. 

“Before you go trampling on our good graces, please consider that you are alive simply because we allow it. If we wanted to we could rip apart your soul thread by thread in the most agonizing ways possible. Every moment that I am not picking you from my teeth with the splinters of your halo is a moment I have given you.”

Riko gawked in horror, tears flooding down her face again. She trembled like a battered puppy, terrified of every golden strand of hair on this woman’s head. 

“That’s enough, Mari-san.” Dia rounded the corner of the door and entered the room and Riko’s body went rigid. The first thing she caught sight of were those glowing green eyes, but there was a strange softness in them now that she wouldn’t have recognized as the same ones boring holes into her not long ago. “There’s no point in traumatizing her.”

“It’s fun,” Mari replied, standing up and moving next to Dia. She tugged on the lobe of Dia’s ear and brought their mouths together. Dia didn’t react, as though Mari had done nothing more than greeted her. “But I suppose I should leave the traumatizing to you.” And with that, Mari left without a second glance, leaving Riko alone with her captor. 

Dia stood silent in the doorway, not looking directly at Riko but not looking away from her. There was a long pause, but Riko couldn’t take her eyes off Dia. A thought occurred to Riko that she would’ve been pretty if she weren’t so immediately terrifying. 

“Um…”

“Do you want me to leave?”

Yes. Absolutely. Riko wanted them all to leave—Riko back to the safety of the pearly gates, Dia to the deep crevasse from which she was surely born and Mari to whatever pit she crawled out of. 

Dia seemed capable in reading body language because she reached for the door immediately. Riko was every mix of terrified and borderline hysterical, but above all else she was confused. She had a semblance of a chance to gather information, and though her body shivered under the blankets and her nerves screamed at her that she had to get away, she gathered enough bravery to look at the demon and address her.

“N-not yet…I want to ask you some things.”

“I can’t let you go, please understand that. No matter what, it’s something you can never ask of me.”

“I gathered that...but if you don’t plan on letting me go...why haven’t you hurt me? Are you planning something? Please...if I can’t ever see the sun again I want to know what’s waiting for me.”

“A lot of things,” Dia began. “Depending on how you act, you may not die. I won’t promise you anything, but Mari-san is right. Every second you live is a gift from her. That probably doesn’t make you feel very good—Mari-san is fickle and like a child. Rest assured...if you can bring yourself to trust the words of a demon...I will do nothing to harm you.”

So if Riko behaved she would be fine? Or at least...had the highest probability of being fine? It was a bit much to wrap her aching head around, but at the very least she was alive and Dia was far from hostile. 

There were still a myriad of unanswered questions though. “But why? None of this really makes sense. If you aren’t going to hurt me or kill me and you’re not going to let me go...why have me here at all? Why the bed...why the bandages...the small talk. It’s not kindness at all—so what is it?”

“Duty, I suppose. It’s my job to patrol the entrances and bring back whatever slips through. It’s nothing personal, I just can’t let anything escape. Mari-san likens me to a guard dog, and I suppose her analogy isn’t incorrect. Anything past keeping you here is undetermined, so hurting you or causing you any kind of distress is unnecessary. You’re right, however. It isn’t kindness.”

“So that’s it?” Riko balled her fists. “I’m just stuck here forever?”

“That’s correct. You have every right to be angry and please, feel free to hate me, but nothing really matters from here on out. I would, however, like to keep things civil if possible.”

“Civil? You want me to just lie down and behave when you’ve damned me for all eternity? You’re out of your mind.”

“I don’t want anything. You can act out in any way you desire. You’re free to make your own decisions and free to face the consequences of those decisions. I would ask that you do try to behave, though. Don’t give anyone the opportunity to mistreat you.”

Tears welled in Riko’s eyes, but she held them in the best that she could. She didn’t want to cry in front of this demon, she wanted to be strong. Startled by Dia’s sudden movement towards her, Riko flinched and tried to scurry away but the bed covers trapped her. Dia insisted that she wasn’t going to hurt Riko, but how could she trust the words of a demon? Weren’t they all lies by default? Riko screwed her eyes shut, waiting for pain of any kind, but felt only the soft silkiness of—she opened her eyes—a handkerchief? Dia was dabbing the tears out of her eyes.

“It’s ok to cry. It will help you feel better. I understand if you’d like to sleep more, and you probably want to be alone, but if you think you can manage it I’ll walk you to your room.”

Surely she misheard. “My room?”

“Yes. I prepared it while you were sleeping. If walking is too strenuous then you can stay here for a little while longer. Mari-san gave me permission to let you remain here as long as necessary.”

“She’s...not going to come back here...is she?”

“Probably. It is her room, after all.”

Riko swallowed, thinking back to the horrible words Mari had told her and the petrifying gleam in her eyes. She looked back at Dia, trying to compare the two of them and without a doubt, Mari was astronomically more terrifying. Dia’s eyes were cold, almost unfeeling, but they housed a barely discernible gentleness within them. They were scary at first, but the longer Riko was exposed to them, the more beauty she saw. Mari’s eyes, on the other hand, were feral. They were dangerous and alive, like a starved monster finally tasting blood. She knew nothing of her situation beyond a very strong desire to never meet those eyes again.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Riko knows she has to get away from here, but it’s quite literally jumping from the frying pan into the fire.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again, I promise this fic is SFW. There will be no unsavory elements.

Riko was smart enough to think that this could be a chance to escape. On God’s list of the most tenacious beings on heaven and earth, Riko was probably nowhere to be found, but darn it, she might as well try to make it to the bottom of the list. If she was going to die down here, she preferred to do it on her own terms. Wherever Dia thought she would be taking her, Riko would use that opportunity to get away. She wasn't sure how far she would make it without her wings, but she had to try.

“Ok,” she said, emerging from the covers and stepping out on the floor. As she rounded the bed and approached Dia, she felt the shoulder of her dress slipping. It was an odd sensation and when she reached for it, she noticed it was torn a considerable amount. Before she could raise the question, Dia spoke.

“If you’re curious about the state of your clothing, I neglected to mention that to suture your wing we had to make...certain adjustments. We tried to work with it, but that proved to be too taxing and so Mari-san made the decision to cut down the back. Actually, I believe tear is a more accurate word.”

“So you just...took the liberty of obliterating my only set of clothes?”

“Believe me when I say we tried other methods, but she feared that she would only damage your wing further. No matter how much she toiled with the fabric, Mari-san felt that she had no other reasonable choice.”

“THERE WAS NOTHING MORE REASONABLE THAN SPLITTING OPEN MY DRESS?”

“Yes.”

“Did it occur to you that I might not want to spend the rest of eternity with ruined clothing?”

“Yes.”

“And you went ahead and did it?!”

“Yes.”

“Can you not be so calm about this?!”

“There’s no reason to get agitated.”

Riko’s face was beet red and Dia looked completely calm and collected—annoyingly so.

“I demand you fix it! Right now!”

Dia smiled, which made Riko realize that she had never seen her smile before. Riko noticed a flash of sharp teeth before Dia brought the back of her hand over her mouth to cover the tiniest of giggles. It was, without a doubt, a very derisive giggle, but it in some way...almost cute.

“Pardon my straying laughter, but you demanding anything is amusing. The damage to your dress is a bit excessive, so I’ll certainly be willing to prepare an outfit for you. There’s just one thing…”

Riko was afraid to ask, but she really didn’t have much of a choice. “And what’s that?”

“I’ll need to take your measurements. Physically.”

“I would rather die,” she blurted unconsciously. “I-I mean I don’t want you touching me! Not at all!”

“I understand. Surely you realize that your dress won’t fit in that state. I’m honestly surprised it hasn’t fallen off yet. But, if you’re opposed to my offer I see no reason why you can’t simply wear the bedsheets.”

“No! I want real clothes!”

“Well then, you know what must be done. Either risk losing your dress at inopportune times or be fitted. It’s not like we’ll be parading your body around the underworld...although now that I think about it, it’s been a long time since an angel fell down here. Your kind is quite exotic and such a rare sight will certainly draw a crowd.”

“You’re awful…”

“I suppose I am.”

“You...wouldn’t really do that...would you?”

“I wouldn’t do anything at all. It’s not my business what you do with your own body. But you can’t stay in Mari’s room forever.”

So basically her options were to either let Dia fondle her or wear the clothing with the greatest risk of a fashion faux pas. Since there was no way she could plan an escape if she was holding onto the sleeve of her dress for dear life, she had to give it serious consideration. Riko hid her face in her hands. Eternal damnation was not off to a good start. 

“O-ok…”

“Really? You were quicker to win over than I thought. Don’t worry, I’ll be respectful.”

“Sure you will…”

“What kind of savage do you take me for? If I wanted to invade you I would’ve already done it.”

“How do I know you didn’t do anything while I was sleeping! You’ve already ripped my clothes up!”

Dia scoffed. “You’re not my type.”

Riko wasn’t sure if she should be relieved or insulted. “W-well fine!” she spat. “Let’s just get this over with since you obviously find my body repulsive!”

“Calm down,” Dia grumbled. “And come back over here so we can get this over with.”

She pouted. The thought of allowing Dia to touch any part of her was unbearable and she hesitated to approach the annoyed demon. Such an idea made her skin prickle. Riko had never considered herself prudish by nature, but it didn’t help that she hadn’t ever even changed in front of another person; instead she always hid behind something or retreated to a bathroom. She guessed that for her, becoming an angel was just the default transition from death into afterlife. She’d died a virgin, after all. 

“I’d rather not spend eternity standing here in the doorway like an idiot, Riko-san. I do have other obligations.”

Riko-san? Why was she addressing her so formally? Moreover, why was she addressing her at all...and so easily! They hadn’t even properly introduced themselves! And god, Dia saying her name made the whole situation much worse. She could feel Dia’s impatient gaze against her back, but even so, Dia remained perfectly still. She had a bizarre sense of...was it courtesy?...that Riko wouldn’t have expected from someone of her nature. 

“O-ok. You promise you won’t do anything...unnecessary?” It felt stupid to ask a demon to promise anything and to expect her to keep her word.

“I don’t need to promise you anything.” Well, that was that. “But yes. I won’t do anything more than take your measurements. It may feel invasive, but I will be respectful as I said before.”

Riko steeled herself and, though to no avail, tried to calm her beating heart. It was weird to think of there even being a heart inside her chest since she technically wasn’t alive, but here she was trying to sustain a calm facade in spite of the intense staccato rhythm. Ok, she thought. It’s just measurements. Just a simple, quick--if she was lucky--grab of numbers so she wouldn’t be borderline naked for all of freaking forever. Be strong, Riko. 

“Any day now.”

“Shut up! I don’t just go around letting people put their hands on me, ok?!”

Dia chuckled. “Well, both Mari-san and I have already had our hands on you.”

“That’s not the point!”

“Look, I think I’ve made it clear that if I wanted to do anything I could. All I’m offering you is a chance to have something nice to wear but if you’d rather stay in Mari’s room for the rest of your unnatural life clinging to rags then that’s your prerogative. Otherwise I’m going back to my job.”

“Fine! Just...give me a second to steel myself!” 

Feeling cornered, Riko let her held breath escape and she closed the distance between herself and Dia. The closer she got the more she wanted to swaddle herself immediately with the bedsheets, but she was already this far. From a distance Dia was scary, but she was worse up close, where Riko could almost trace the sharp edges of her frame. Her brows seemed permanently knit and if she hadn't seen her smile before, Riko wouldn't think that Dia was even capable of the act. And Dia was big, but not the kind of big Riko guessed would be commonplace for a demon. She was tall, maybe a foot above Riko’s head, but she traded what was, in Riko’s mind "monstrous bulk", for a much more trim physique. She was still muscular, as Riko was forced to acknowledge by the lack of sleeves on her shirt. If Riko didn't know she was a demon though, she would've just thought she was some Yakuza thug solely based on her basic attire: a tight, gunmetal grey turtleneck, a pair of black--Riko couldn't really tell what the fabric was, but the closest thing she could describe them as was jeans--and this bizarre cape of fur over her shoulders. Riko wasn't one to criticize fashion, but a fur cape seemed a bit...flagrant? Excessive? Ridiculous? Oh, and of course she had to be wearing black leather boots that would've had to make the most ungodly clunking sound when she walked. Dia might as well have been a complete parody of herself, like she read up 'demon stereotypes' and dressed accordingly.

Dia huffed. “You don’t have to face me if you don’t want to.” Damn right Riko did not want to face her! Having a predator at one's back was primally disquieting, but she decided the embarrassment of looking each other in the eyes was not worth it and quickly turned around. Dia took a step forward and they were so uncomfortably close that Riko could feel the heat between them. “I know you’re not going to believe that I conveniently have anything like a pen and paper for recording your measurements, so I’m going to tell you right now that I don’t. I’ll be comparing your features to mine so it won’t be an exact fit, but I don’t think you’ll mind if it’s a little big.”

“It surprises me that you even wear clothes. I figured you’d just be wearing loincloths and stomping around on cloven hooves.” One good dig was enough to make Riko smile and mentally highfive herself. 

Much to her chagrin, however, Dia did not miss a beat. “Oh, I see. You know, maybe I’ve decided I’m perfectly fine with you staying in your rags. I should really just stop trying to help you and go back to prodding damned souls with a pitchfork and coiling my black goatee.” 

Dia began to walk away, prompting Riko to turn after her and shout “wait!”. Reaching out for Dia in an attempt to catch her wrist or something proved too recklessly a maneuver because shortly afterwards the dreaded fashion faux pas claimed Riko mercilessly. The sleeve of her shoulder slid just enough from her movements to fall completely off, effectively exposing her white lace bra. She yelled again, snatching up what bits of fabric that she could use to cover herself up. “Don’t look!”

“I think it’s a bit late for that.”

“You’re a pervert! _A pervert_!”

Dia gasped offendedly. “I absolutely am _not_. If you’d rather I leave and let you hope that Mari has a shred of the same decency I’ve shown you then that’s fine. I’ll take my leave.” She turned on her heels with an ill-mannered huff and was halfway out the door before Riko could stop her. 

“I-I’m sorry!” It felt so bizarre to be apologizing to someone who was her aggressor not long ago. Dia snorted indignantly and Riko puffed her cheeks. “I shouldn’t even have to be sorry, since this is all your fault. But...if you could just...make me something without taking my exact measurements I’d be much happier. Not that I guess you would care about what might make me happy.”

“I don’t care what makes you happy.” Before Riko could pout some more, Dia continued. “But I did already say that I didn’t see any necessity in making your stay here exceptionally unpleasant. And I suppose I could just follow my own body measurements and save myself the hassle of remembering yours. It shouldn’t take me very long but I will still have to procure the fabrics and necessary supplies.” Dia paused and tapped her chin, looking lost in thought for a moment. “What is your preferred color?”

“You’re asking me my favorite color?”

“Don’t read into it, I just figure if I’m going to pick something for you it might as well be something you find agreeable. Unless, of course, you’d like me to dig up a pair of hideous green clown pants that got thrown down here.”

“I’ll pass on the clown pants. Um...m-my favorite color is pink.”

“Interesting.”

“Why?”

“I take it back, it’s not interesting at all. It’s typical of your kind—flowery and lofty and girly.”

“What’s wrong with that?!”

“Nothing. I just realized that you’re probably not going to survive down here.”

Riko swallowed a lump in her throat. So what, they were back to her being threatened an inordinate amount? “I thought you said you weren’t going to hurt me.”

“I won’t. But I also didn’t say I was going to do anything to protect you either. This isn’t Wonderland. I suppose you could call Mari-san the Red Queen, but me? I’m the Jabberwocky.”

She couldn’t help but stare at Dia, and not because of the absolute terror she had seemingly forgotten was rampaging through her veins. Dia was still standing in the doorway, blocking what view Riko might have beyond her. Their deceptively playful banter took her thoughts away from what dwelled outside the unassuming white paint of Mari’s bedroom door. 

She hadn’t been an angel for very long and nobody ever talked about what hell was like—the topic rarely came up outside of one campfire story full of ogres and hellhounds and tortured souls. That thought did remind her that all the stories she’d heard described hell as a place of fire and brimstone and, while she certainly didn’t know what brimstone smelled like, this room in particular wasn’t all that warm. As for the smell...all she could detect were the faint traces of rose petals from the sheets. Was there really nothing but a world of horror and fire waiting for her beyond that door?

“I’ll be back when I can,” Dia said after a bout of silence. “I won’t promise that Mari-san will or will not return, but I’ll knock at the very least. Oh, and Riko-san, before I go…”

Disheartened considerably, Riko found it tedious to even respond. “What do you want now?”

“I don’t find your body repulsive.”

Before Riko could wrap her mind around Dia’s words or even stutter, the demon closed the door behind her, leaving Riko with nothing but stillness and trepidation.

She relaxed after a moment, finally allowing her shoulders to drop and her held breath to ease out her mouth. At least, for now, Riko was alive. She couldn’t argue that as things were, she was little more than a canary in a birdcage. But...she figured that it was better to be a bird in a cage than a moth in a web. She couldn’t be too pleased with her analogy though, because that just meant Dia was the cat. In any case, a cat was definitely less scary than a Jabberwocky.


	4. Chapter 4

 

Even with the pretense of immortality, Riko enjoyed the concept of time that heaven facilitated. There weren’t clocks or sundials, but there was day and there was night. Humans enjoyed order and so the illusion of time was a comfort. At least, that's what she always assumed. Mari’s room didn’t have any windows, but why would they. They were underground, for all intents and purposes. It was a wonder how Riko had any visibility and she was quite curious as to what powered the lights in here, because it surely wasn't electricity. 

 

Actually, how could a bedroom like this even exist? Soft, plush pillows and silky sheets? If she didn’t know she was in the bowels of hell, Riko would almost feel a sense of comfort in here. She walked around not long after Dia had left, picked up a pomegranate off the table and poked at it with her nails. What drops of juice that ran down her arm were sweet, so sweet in fact, that she was tempted to indulge in the ruby seeds buried in the fruit’s flesh. But she knew better than that. She wasn’t trying to spin this tale into a Greek tragedy. 

 

When Dia did eventually come back, Riko wasn’t sure if she’d been gone for an hour or two or the rest of the day into the next day. Riko kept herself in bed, not willing to fight with the tattered remains of her dress any more than she needed to. She was surprised after she woke up that she could sleep at all. 

 

“Riko-san.” Dia’s casual knocking at the door made Riko forget that she was a demon keeping her trapped here completely against her will and she responded with a polite “yes?”. “I finished your dress. I’d ask if you’re decent.” Riko could hear her chuckling on the other side of the door. “But that’s why I’m here.”

 

“You’re not funny,” Riko responded with a scowl that was wasted on the non-transparent wood of the door. 

 

Dia walked into the room with a short white dress slung over her shoulders. She laid it out on the bed and the first thing Riko noticed was that there was an absence of color altogether. 

 

“What was the point of asking me about my favorite color if you were just going to leave it white?” 

 

“I have a limited pallet down here, I apologize if my efforts are a waste to you.”

 

Dia’s curt response almost prompted Riko to recant her statement, but that would be like admitting she were in the wrong. Instead she stared at her new outfit, admiring subconsciously the structure and expertly sewn seams. 

 

“Do you want me to help you put it on? I imagine it’s difficult negotiating your wings as they are. I tried to leave the back open but it was difficult to find a balance between tasteful and practical.”

 

“Oh?” Riko found it amusing that Dia would be concerned with keeping Riko’s clothing “tasteful” and she wondered what Dia’s definition of taste was exactly. “Um...if...if you aren’t weird about it, yes. 

 

“Once again you insult me.”

 

“Look, how am I supposed to trust you? What good is your word to me anyway?”

 

“It’s frustrating when I am doing what I can to be pleasant for you.” 

 

“Is it hard to be pleasant?”

 

“It is when nagging angels like you don’t know their place. Now just...hurry up and get dressed so I can take you to your room.”

 

“You’re so pushy. What’s the hurry...I’m going to be stuck here forever.”

 

“I would think that being in your own room for the duration of your time here would be more pleasant, but if you’ve suddenly decided to become Mari-san’s chambermaid then we have no more business to discuss.”

 

“Chambermaid?!”

 

“What else am I to think when you seem so keen on sleeping half naked in her bed?”

 

“Now you’re just being mean.”

 

“I’m a demon.”

 

“A  _ mean _ demon.”

 

“Please tell me of any other demons you have met in your oh so very extensive stay in the cavernous underbelly of the afterlife. Or perhaps you were referring to Mari-san, who casually threatened to devour your entire immortal soul.”

 

“She was very matter-of-fact about it. You’re just picking on me.”

 

“I wasn’t aware that hand sewing you clothing was equivalent to bullying you. And don’t forget we treated your wounds, which I might add, you never bothered to thank me for.”

 

“Technically I thanked the other one and I did yell at you from the doorway.”

 

“You and I both know that was an improper display of gratitude.”

 

Riko crossed her arms and looked away with a puff of air. “If I need to thank you for fixing the wing I broke trying to get away from you then you can accept my misguided apology.”

 

“Have it your way then, I really have no use for the pretty words of a grounded fairy.” Dia pushed open the door to the hallway—or at least what Riko kept assuming was a hallway—and beckoned her out with a quick nudge of her head. “You walk ahead of me and I’ll tell you where to go.”

 

“Why am I leading?”

 

“So I can make sure you don’t attempt a daring escape, of course. Not that you’d be capable of getting anywhere on your own.”

 

“Are you...going to tie me up or something?”

 

Dia laughed. “Do you want me to?”

 

“No! It’s just...unexpected.”

 

“As I said before, there’s nowhere you can go. We only kept your door locked so you didn’t wander off and get yourself eaten.”

 

“Eaten?!”

 

“Absolutely. You’re a rare delicacy. Keep close to me when we walk. We shouldn’t encounter any other demons but hell is full of unsavory characters. You have the benefit of being in my company, so I’ll make sure you at least get to your room safely.”

 

“I thought you said you weren’t going to protect me?”

 

“Alright, die then.”

 

“I was  _ joking _ !”

 

“I’ve been told enough times by Mari-san that I have a poor sense of humor, so you’d do well to jest elsewhere—or better yet, not at all. Now come along then.”

 

Dia beckoned Riko as if she were little more than a trained pet on a leash, but even in spite of such an insult, Riko began to walk. Truth be told, she was exceptionally curious about the world beyond the walls. Dia smartly kept Riko where she could be seen, making her escape plan slightly more challenging. The audacity to leave Riko unbound was enough to make her want to attempt at least one good jailbreak. Riko didn’t have the wit to call a bluff when she saw one, but she’d just have to chance that Dia was only discouraging her from running and that she’d suffer no real repercussions from trying. 

 


End file.
